A variety of brewing apparatus have been developed to combine heated water with a brewing substance such as ground coffee or tea material in order to infuse the material and produce a brewed beverage. There are many ways to combine the water with the brewing substance.
One way of brewing a beverage is to manufacture or pre-package and encapsulate the brewing substance in a filter material. The brewing substance in the filter material provides a convenient package for handling a predetermined quantity of brewing substance. The filter material provides a package or container for the brewing substance. This package allows the brewing substance to be handled prior to brewing and after brewing without complication or mess.
Such brewing substances pre-packaged in filter material are referred to as “pods” or “sachets.” Pods can be compressed while packaging in the filter material or left in a generally uncompressed condition. Pods are typically circular shaped and have a somewhat flattened configuration. Thus, pods often are provided in the shape of a disc or puck. Pods generally range in a size from approximately 45 mm to 60 mm and contain approximately 9-11 grams of brewing substance. The typical pod is used to produce approximately 8 ounces of brewed beverage. As a result, pods are generally used in conjunction with single-serve brewers (i.e., one or two cup brewers) rather than the larger, multi-serve brewers.
Although convenient, pod use in single-serve brewers may be less desirable in some situations. For example, because the pods are prepackaged by a pod manufacturer, the selection of brewing substances is limited to the pod manufacturer's selection. As a result, a consumer or user may not be able to use his/her favorite brewing substance when utilizing a prepackaged pod. Similarly, because the pods are prepackaged, varying the strength of the resultant beverage may be accomplished by increasing or decreasing the amount of brewing water delivered to the brewing substance or the pattern of delivering water to the brewing substances.
Uniform flavor extraction from the brewing material may be more difficult to achieve with a pod. Unlike open filter brewer designs which use a cone or “cup cake” filter paper brewing substance in a pod is confined within the pod and generally is not free to agitate in the brewing liquid. Instead, the brewing liquid tends to pass directly from the top of the pod to the bottom of the pod, collecting solubles as it passes through. This vertical flow pattern through the pod may result in some areas of the brewing substance being over extracted and other areas being under extracted. Accordingly, the flavor of the resulting beverage may be affected due to the non-uniform extraction of solubles, particles and other flavor characteristics from the particles of brewing substance.
In some instances, access to or availability of prepackaged pods is limited due, in part, to their proprietary nature (i.e., certain prepackaged pods are suitable for use in a particular brewer) and their associated limited distribution. For example, some brands of prepackaged pods may only be purchased from high-end specialty stores or mail/Internet ordering.
It would be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for containment of the brewing substance used in a brewer.
It would be desirable to provide the ability to allow a user to select the brewing substance used in a brewer.
It would be desirable to provide an ability to adjust the quantity of brewing substance used in a brewer.